“PHOSPHORESCENCE. Now there’s a word to lift your hat to.” -Emily Dickinson
As Chief Wordologist at Brains on Fire, it probably comes as no surprise that I like words. But one of the things I like most about words is that they are accessible to everyone. Once you know how to read, every thought, concept, rebellion, fantasy, and bit of history that ever is, was or will be is quite literally at your fingertips. (Or at your eyeball tips, rather.)
Sometimes I like to get out of the story, though, and get down to the nuts and bolts of what makes language so awesome — words. So much depends on simple strings and combinations of letters.
A few days ago, I threw a question out to our team: What are your favorite words? Not your favorite word definitions. Your favorite words.
Here’s a short list of our top candidates. What would you add to the list?
| Akimbo |
| Bindlestiff |
| Cattywampus |
| Caucus |
| Dagnabbit |
| Discombobulated |
| Discombobulated |
| Effervescent |
| Ethereal |
| Exquisite |
| Francisco |
| Haberdashery |
| Hocho |
| Hodgepodge |
| Hornswoggled |
| Je ne sais quoi |
| Lava |
| Maleficent |
| Mezcla |
| Moist |
| Moron |
| Occulative |
| Onomatopoeia |
| Penelope |
| Peppercorn |
| Periwinkle |
| Powder Room |
| Preposterous |
| Rigmarole |
| Saccharine |
| Sassafras |
| Scallywag |
| Serendipitous |
| Smack dab |
| Sobremesa |
| Sprinkle |
| Steven |
| Stupor |
| Suave |
| Suave |
| Superfluous |
| Supine |
| Supongo |
| Tafellappen |
| Tingle |
| Uff da |
| Underpants |
| Vacillate |
| Venerable |
| Viridescent |
| Whimsical |
| Xiphoid Process |
The post A Word on Words appeared first on Brains on Fire.
